Fan-Made Misery

Please sir, may I have some more?
When longtime fans, starving for another helping of their favorite franchise,
pose this question they are frequently handed another fresh serving. Sequels
have become the backbone of the current gaming industry, with a two and three
appearing on nearly as many boxes as the ESRB rating. But what happens when the
answer to the previous question is a resounding no? With nowhere to turn to and
little to no hope of getting the proper sequel they were looking forward to,
some fans will just take it upon themselves to cook up their own successors.

Unfortunately, getting a sequel in
this fashion is much more difficult than simply walking into a store and paying
your 60 dollars. Creating your own follow up typically requires a team of
likeminded individuals, a healthy financial investment, a ton of dedication, and
potentially several years of work. And what is the prospective payoff for all of
this work and risk? Absolutely nothing except a sense of accomplishment and the
ability to shape the sequel that never was. There is no chance of receiving any
financial compensation for all the time, effort, and money they’ve sunk into the
project because that’s when the properties original owner will take legal
action, if they haven’t already.

Frequently, companies tend to look
the other way when it comes to fan-made projects. If the fans aren’t charging
money for the finished product and the game isn’t directly competing with
something they’re trying to do with the property, many companies feel there’s
really no need to squash the hopes and dreams of die-hard fans willing to put
forth the effort. However, there have been some cases that seemingly defy
explanation, where a property hasn’t been used for so long that the fans feel as
though the series have been abandoned but the owners still feel the need to
prevent fan-made follow-ups.

The most recent example of this kind
of fan-made tyranny comes from our friends at Activision and involves the
classic King’s Quest adventure series. Shortly after King’s Quest 9 was
cancelled by Sierra in 2002, a group named Phoenix Online Studios started work
on making the game for themselves, originally titling the project as King’s
Quest IX: Every Cloak Has A Silver Lining. In 2005 Vivendi Universal, the
property’s owner, sent them a cease-and-desist letter, effectively bringing an
end to the fan-made project. After a massive outcry and online petition, Vivendi
and Phoenix Online Studios got together and worked out a compromise. Vivendi
would allow development of the project to continue and grant it a non-commercial
fan license as long as the King’s Quest name was taken off of it, leaving it as
just The Silver Lining.

As such, the game continued to be
developed until the end of February. It was at this time that the current King’s
Quest owner, Activision, decided that even though they had no current plans to
make another King’s Quest title and The Silver Lining’s developers already had
an arrangement with the past holder of the property, that it was time for yet
another cease-and-desist order. So now the project once again sits dead, after
eight years of blood, sweat, and anticipation. If you’re interested in trying to
save this project or just want to see what could have been,
here’s the link to
an online petition started by some members of the forums on The Silver Lining’s
website.

Sadly, this type of story is nothing
new for the “make-it-yourself if they won’t” crowd. If you’re looking for some
of the most tread on fan-made targets, then look no further than the Chrono
series. With little more than a DS rerelease of the original Chrono Trigger in
2008 since the sequel Chrono Cross’s 1999 original PlayStation release, the
series and its fans have really been left out to dry over the past decade. It
should come as no surprise that many fans of the series have decided to take
matters into their own hands and work on their own remakes and follow-ups. Of
course, the property’s owner, Square Enix, hasn’t seemed to appreciate these
fans’ exuberance, sending out cease-and desist-letters to some very promising
looking projects over the years. Here are some links to just a few of the Chrono
casualties.

It’s really a shame looking at some
of these promising fan-made games, realizing all the time and work that must
have gone into them just to get shut down in the end. However, not every company
is as gung-ho about shutting down non-profit fan-made titles. Brief searches
online can pull up all sorts of fan-made games based on big-named properties
ranging from the likes of a 3D Doom-styled Mega Man deathmatch first-person
shooter to an 8-bit version of Left 4 Dead. Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising
fan-made title I’ve found during my recent searches is entitled Shadows of Lylat
and is intended to be an HD Star Fox sequel taking place between Star Fox 64 and
Star Fox Adventures. No action has yet been taken by Nintendo to try to shut the
project down so far so just feast your eyes on this promising trailer, but don’t
get too excited just in case.

So if you’re interested in remaking
a classic title or making a long awaited sequel for yourself, how are you
supposed to know whether it’ll raise the ire of the company that holds the
rights to it? Well, there’s really no good answer to this question, just take as
many precautions as possible. Perhaps try making a spiritual successor rather
than using the actual names and locations from the original title. Don’t reuse
any assets from previous titles and/or modify original code. Make it abundantly
clear that your remake/sequel is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the
actual property holder. And most importantly, perhaps try to contact the
property owner before spending countless hours and dollars making something that
might just get cease and desisted a month before its intended release.